Prescription Drugs: Use, Abuse & Addiction "What Physicians & Clinicians Can Do"

Local Conference to Address National Prescription Drug Abuse and Overdose Epidemic

What can we do to address the climbing rate of addiction and overdose deaths in Connecticut? While much of society thinks of the "drug problem" as the importation of dangerous and illicit substances from foreign countries - in fact the major drug problems in this country are "Made in the USA." In particular prescription opioids (e.g. Vicodin, Percocet, Oxycontin, Lortab, etc), used legitimately and effectively in the treatment of pain, are now the most prescribed class of medications - and they are second only to automobile accidents in causing accidental deaths.  In Connecticut and 10 other states they are the number one cause of accidental death and the number one cause of all deaths in the age group 18-44 years with 39,000 Americans dead last year of preventable overdose.

Overdose rates can be correlated to the number of legal prescriptions written per zip code. The United States is seeing unprecedented use of the private and public health systems for detoxification, emergency room visits and addiction treatment, the rates of death, overdose and continue to climb. Healthcare professionals must lead the national response to this epidemic.

“Prescription Drugs: Use, Abuse and Addiction: What Physicians and Clinicians Can Do” will take place on October 6th, 5 – 9:30 PM at Western Connecticut State University. Co-sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers, Western CT Health Network, Insight Counseling and in collaboration with HVCASA, this conference will offer positive and practical tools for physicians, nurses, addiction specialists and all mental health clinicians and prevention specialists. This non-profit conference is the pilot in a series of nationwide, targeted continuing education efforts.

“We have created this conference to focus on what healthcare professionals can do immediately to reduce both risks to their own patients and to the community at large as well as protect themselves from liability when prescribing to patients,” said Elizabeth Driscoll Jorgensen, Owner of Insight Counseling in Ridgefield, CT, “Attendees will leave with tools and skills that we know will make a real impact.”

Thomas McLellan PH.D. will present, “Prescription Drug Abuse: Facing a Public health Epidemic” as the keynotes address and there will be 2 tracks of breakout sessions, one specifically for physicians and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses and one for all other mental health and addiction specialists. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Treatment Research Institute (TRI), a not-for-profit research and development institute in Philadelphia. McLellan is nationally and internationally recognized for his more than 30 years of research into treatment effectiveness for substance abuse patients. Among McLellan's many honors and awards are the Life Achievement Award of the American Society of Addiction Medicine in 2003 and in 2004 he was named Innovator of the Year by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Breakout speakers include Dr. Ken Thompson and Dr. Greg Gable (of Caron Treatment Centers) who will both address brief assessment and treatment referral as well as issues related to impaired professionals, Richard Colango, Assistant State’s Attorney, who will address liability issues, Sharon Guck, MPH, of WCSU on reaching the Young Adult Population and E. Driscoll Jorgensen CADC on engaging resistant clients and their families.

4 hours of continuing education will be offered for physicians, social workers, and counseling professionals. Dinner will also be served.  For further information or to register for the conference please visit: www.caron.org and click on the ‘events’ menu.

The brochure is also available by emailing: insight@snet.net or calling HVCASA at (203) 743-7741.